Saturday, October 08, 2005

UFOs, Jet Trucks, Sun, and JJ

It was about this time last year.  Deana and I were making our usual trip to town after church on Sunday night.  There was still about an hour of daylight left and the sky was partly cloudy.  Dropping out of the clouds was what I thought was an airplane.  Living near the airport, we see this every day.  But with a closer look, this didn’t look like a commercial jet or ever the C130s that trek the sky from the local Air Force base.

UFO?  Maybe.  Really it was a B2 Stealth bomber.  The base was hosting an Air Show that weekend and this participant was headed to his home base.  Very impressive.  If you’ve never seen the Stealth, it’s worth a trip to an Air Force Air Show.

Today was the Air Show comes around again so we loaded up and went to it.  I’m not a military or air flight enthusiast, but I enjoyed the day.  Well, except for the sore feet and legs and the excessive sun on my face and bald spot.

We walked through a transport plane large enough to hold six tour busses or 105 Ford Mustangs.  The seating was just a bench along the perimeter.  That must be really uncomfortable on long flights.

We walked through a refueling plane.  It had a “cockpit” in the rear for the guys who steer the fueling nozzle to the receiving plane.

Riley’s favorite was the J J the Jet Plane exhibit.

The B2 was there along with almost every kind of plane the Air Force uses.  And we saw a demonstration of all of them.  The freestyle demonstrations were pretty impressive.  But the diesel truck (18-wheeler type) with the jet engine mounted on the back was over the top.  The driver holds the land speed record at 326 mph.

Have you ever spent three or four hours on the concrete tarmac of an airstrip?  Good thing it was cool today.  There aren’t many trees out there.  The best shade is from the big and tall guy behind you.

But you have to go to an Air Show.  Just be sure to take the sunscreen, great walking shoes, and patience.

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